Random Destination
by soubriquet
Summary: The Doctor and Rose decide to explore a random destination and somehow land in America at the height of the 1918 Influenza pandemic. First fanfic, honest criticisms welcomed. :
1. Chapter 1

_Author's note: This is sort of an alterna-adventure, taking place around season two. :) Oh, and I don't own Doctor Who. That'd be the BBC._

--

"…And then he turns to me, and guess what he says?"

The Doctor and Rose stumbled around the corner laughing, clutching onto each other as if they would fall down in giggles the moment they let go. The Doctor continued his story, all wild gestures and tousled hair. He turned to the Rose, who was, by now, doubled over with laughter, and finished his joke.

"He says, 'That's no Slitheen! That's my mother!" The pair cracked up again, sending spirals of laughter pealing through the streets. The humor would normally be enough to lighten up any situation, but it seemed almost gaudy, set against the cold, empty roads as it was.

Slowly, and after many muffled giggles, the two examined their surroundings. The road was winding and cobbled, the houses and shop fronts made of brick and wood. It was a generic cityscape- they could've been anywhere.

"Doctor," the girl asked, turning towards her companion, "Where did you say we were going again?"

The Doctor grinned. "I didn't."

"Well then, out with it! Where are we?"

"No idea!" The Doctor shoved his hands in his pockets and spun around, taking in the view from all angles. "Random destination. Hit a button on the TARDIS, and bam! We're off! That's the beauty of it, Rose, any place, any time!" The Doctor looked delighted at the prospect, as if the idea of being lost in space was the best news he'd heard all day. "For all I know, this could be 245 MYA!"

Rose raised an eyebrow. "Except, clearly, it's not."

"We-ell, give or take 245,001,900 years." The Doctor fumbled in his pocket for a bit before finally pulling out his prize with a dramatic flourish. "I'll just check..." he twisted a few knobs on the sonic screwdriver, "Setting two hundred, maybe? Just a quick scan and…"

Rose rolled her eyes. 'Or," she called teasingly as she skipped ahead of the Doctor, "We could just ask." She could see someone standing about a block and a half down the otherwise deserted lane. A girl, it looked like, probably about her own age.

"Right," The Doctor called, tucking the sonic device back into his pocket. He jogged to catch up to where Rose was slowing in front of the young woman. "The domestic approach."

As the two grew nearer, they could make the figure ahead of them more clearly. The girl they'd spotted was of average height, standing, as if on duty, in a plain grey dress, belted at the waist. She was pretty, in a country girl sort of way, with perpetually rosy cheeks and curly dark hair that strained to escape from her sensible bun. Dark circles fell under her eyes, as if she hadn't had a good night sleep in weeks. The girl smiled just slightly as she saw Rose and the Doctor approach, quickly taking in their disheveled hair and unusual attire.

"Uh, hello!" The Doctor said cheerily, "I'm the Doctor, and this is my friend Rose, and we were wondering if you could tell us where we are."

"Shipton Street, sir," the girl responded, looking slightly amused by this question. She pointed at a sign about ten feet away, clearly labeled, proclaiming their location for all to see.

"Err, well, yes." The Doctor gave a sheepish grin. "I was hoping you could be a bit more specific than that. What city, country...?"

"Continent, planet, solar system?" Rose cut in, leaning causally on the brick wall beside her. She watched and the young woman's face slowly lost her friendly smile, her expression flicking from confusion, to worry, to fear."

The girl learned down and hefted up a small black bag that lay at her feet. "I think you'd better come with me, ma'am. You too, sir." She gestured toward a small bench that sat in front of a boarded-up deli just a few feet away.

Rose glanced over at the Doctor and pouted, then grinned as he reached into his jacket pocket once again. "Oh, that won't be necessary...what's your name?" He pulled out a battered leather wallet and flashed it at the other girl, giving his most reassuring smile.

The girl ignored him, reached out, and firmly grasped the Doctor's wrist, pulling him gently towards the bench. The Doctor shrugged, almost imperceptibly, at Rose, allowed himself to be dragged without protest.

"It's Cora, sir, Cora Sinclair. And you should know the rules better than anyone, being a doctor yourself." She watched sternly as the Doctor obediently sat on the bench, with Rose plopping down rather unceremoniously after.

Rose glanced nervously at the Doctor's quietly complying form. What was going on? What strange place had they turned up? Her first instinct was to go and explore, or at least to demand some answers from this Cora girl, but she knew the Doctor was right. For once it was better to sit through God-knows-what than to run off and scare the locals. It didn't look like they were in danger, anyway. She watched, perplexed, as Cora began to ask the Doctor a few questions of her own."

"Headache? Cough?" The Doctor shook his head no. She peered at him closely. "Color's good, but I'd like to check you out all the same." Cora reached out and lightly pressed her small hand against the skin of the Doctor's forehead, then reached into her bag and pulled out a small stethoscope, as well as an old-fashioned mercury thermometer. The stethoscope she draped around her neck before handing the thermometer to the Doctor.

"Well?" Cora asked, as the Time Lord took the offered instrument, but did not put it in his mouth. "C'mon now, if you're gonna ask what planet you're on, you should expect to have your temperature taken."

The Doctor shot Rose an amused look as if to say, _Well, she'd have found out anyway_, and popped the thermometer under his tongue. Rose was beginning to feel be less and less patient.

"Seriously though, where are we? America, yeah?" She nodded at Cora, acknowledging her accent.

"Of course," Cora murmured. "New York, United States, North America, Earth, The Solar System." She raised an eyebrow at Rose. "Any other questions?"

"Yes, actually." Rose replied, unfazed by Cora's quiet insolence. "What's the year? And why the hell are you examining us?"

"How can you be ignorant of that?" Cora asked, genuinely astonished, "Where have you been living?"

The Doctor, who'd been fidgeting impatiently, sighed and removed the thermometer from his lips. "Blasted thing," he muttered, twirling the glass between his fingers, "Always takes ages. You'd have thought they could have worked out something faster by now." He frowned slightly, before turning to Cora and responding chipperly, "Anyway, we're travelers. Humor us."

Cora looked at him curiously, "How could you have you travelled so far, sir, that you've not been affected by the Spanish Influenza?" She looked strangely hopeful, as if she'd never considered that anyone might've escaped the disease.

"We-ell," The Doctor shrugged and ran his fingers through his brown hair, "Remote regions of…Ireland. 1918, is it?" He turned to his friend, and Rose could see a new understanding had filled his eyes. "That explains a lot."


	2. Chapter 2

"Well, we'll just be going then. C'mon Rose!" The Doctor flashed Cora his usual disarming smile as he leapt up from the rough wooden bench.

Cora raised an eyebrow at Rose and caught hold of the Doctor's pinstriped coat. "Sit." She smiled at the Doctor's childish pout as he turned back to his seat. Quickly, she held up a finger, as if to shush any protests before they came. "Doctor, Rose, you have to let me listen. There haven't been any cases in this part of town. If you were to infect someone, the entire community would be devastated."

Sitting rather more patiently than she felt, Rose allowed Cora to listen to her breathing. "All clear," said Cora, relief evident on her round face. She turned towards the Doctor. "Alright then, mister- it's your turn."

Rose stifled a giggle as she watched Cora's eyebrows snap together in shock. The other girl's gaze flicked from Rose to the Doctor's bemused expression, to the stethoscope she still held firmly pressed to the Time Lord's chest.

"Well?" Rose asked. Her twinkling eyes held no malice, just a gentle teasing, as if she were holding back a secret that she couldn't wait to reveal. The Doctor caught her eye, and they shared a grin. "What's the diagnosis?"

"Uh…err…" Cora stuttered. She looked up at Rose again, unsure of whether or not she should share her discovery. "Situs Inversus." She glanced up at the Doctor, hoping for approval.

"Nope!" The Doctor beamed at the girl. "Two hearts, actually. But you're close."

Before Cora had a chance to react, Rose stood up and leaned casually of the Doctor's shoulder. "So, when are you going to show us around then? If you're really in the middle of some epidemic, then we want to help, don't we Doctor?"

Now it was Cora's turn to smile, a big grin spreading across her face. "Right now."

--

Cora explained her position as the three of them made their way over to St. Vincent Hospital. "I was studying to be a nurse when the influenza hit. The hospitals were so desperate for healthy staff; they took anyone they could get." She shook her head, a strange look in her eye. "Just think," she added ruefully, "A year ago I would've been desperate for so much experience."

Cora stopped outside the hospital door. She looked like she was about to cry, and suddenly Rose could see that despite her no-nonsense attitude and weary demeanor, the girl was only in her late teens, younger than Rose herself. Gently, deliberately, Rose took her hand.

The two were about to enter together when the Doctor stopped abruptly. "You should wait outside."

"What?"

He looked and her soberly, "Rose, I'm serious. This is extremely dangerous. I'm not susceptible to human disease, but you are. Wait here."

Rose glanced up at him incredulously and snorted. "Fat chance. I'm going to help." And with that she pushed ahead of the Doctor and into the room.

The Doctor watched her enter, a lopsided smile slowly crossing his lips.

_--_

"Oh my god!" Rose gasped, looking in horror and the masses of bodies lying deathly still on the hundreds of beds. Nurses moved from patient to patient, numbly wiping sweat, cleaning vomit, murmuring comfort. And removing the dead. "They're so young!"

The Doctor nodded. "That was one of the oddest things about the 1918 flu- killed about 100 million people that way. Normally, influenza causes a "U" pattern of mortality," he explained, sketching the graph with his hands, "It caused the most deaths in people under three and over seventy-five, but this year was different for some reason. Young healthy adults were hit the hardest. Strange symptoms, probably caused by cytokine storms. It was misdiagnosed all the time, you know, because of the severity of the symptoms. Hemorrhage from mucous membranes, bleeding from the ears and petechial hemorrhage in the skin, edema in the lungs…"

Cora looked at Rose wearily. "We've done everything we can to stop the contagion. We set up a system of checks –like what I did with you and the Doctor- and we've all got masks. You should've seen it, Rose! We had an entire baseball game where everyone had gauze over their mouth –the umpire, the player, and every single person in the stands- all wearing masks. What a sight!" She brightened at the memory.

"You humans!" The Doctor beamed, "That's exactly what I love about you lot. Always finding clever little ways to carry on, despite the hardships." He ran his fingers through his unruly hair, causing it to spike ever so slightly more than usual. "It didn't work, mind you, but it was clever all the same." He gestured wildly as he spoke, each movement offering an exuberant, if slightly patronizing, testament to the human race.

"Doctor…" Rose murmured, as every physician, nurse and able bodied patient turned to stare. "Might want to pipe down with the 'you humans' bit, yeah?" She cocked her head towards the nearest bed. "Besides, you'll wake everyone up."

The Doctor grinned, as much at the confusion that he caused as at Rose, and swept back the dingy sheet strung drearily around each patient in a sorry attempt to stop the spread of the disease.

But suddenly the Doctor no longer had any pretense of cheer. "I'm sorry," He whispered as he caught sight of the young man, twisting and gasping beneath the sweat-soaked covers, swollen black feet jutting out from under the sheets. His sallow yellow face had turned grey, lit by two red flags of fever, and the boy's florid lips curled back in a grimace above white, somehow dead looking, teeth. Inch by inch he gasped a thread of air into his lungs.

The Doctor reached out and tenderly touched the lad's temple. "I'm so sorry."

_Sorry that was so short and disjointed. Like I said, this is my first fanfic, and I'm probably in desperate need of a beta. Which I don't have. sigh If you catch any plot holes, mistakes, of really OOC moments -please- let me know! Constructive criticism is always helpful. Anyway, review review review! And I'll have the next chapter up as soon as possible, okay? :D -soubriquet_


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